24-06-2025
Food streets on backburner as even Trichy's wider roads choke
Trichy: Two years after the Trichy Corporation proposed creating food streets to benefit both residents and mobile food vendors by regulating their business locations without disrupting vehicular movement, the plan remains a non-starter.
Meanwhile, the rapid increase in street food outlets, especially on the city's few remaining wider roads, has led to growing complaints about traffic congestion, prompting the city police to seek solutions to manage mobile eateries.
Post Covid-19, food trucks have sprung up in each of Trichy's five zones, with about 5 to 10 food joints per zone. Over time, the number of trucks has proliferated to more than 100 across the city.
Since narrow streets are unsuitable for these mobile eateries, vendors have targeted wider, spacious roads such as West Boulevard Road, Major Saravanan Road, Williams Road, Thillai Nagar Main Road, Sastri Road, and SBI Road.
However, many of these roads are important city bus routes.
Trichy city police note that visitor parking on these stretches significantly reduces the usable road space, leaving at least 30% of the carriageways unmotorable.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025
Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List
Undo
"We have instructed mobile eateries to move towards less busy roads, away from main roads used for public transport. But lack of enforcement has resulted in persistent congestion, especially at night," a traffic police officer told TOI. Violations around informal food outlets include encroachment of pavements and riding against traffic to access stalls.
Residents have voiced concerns about the permanent occupation of on-street parking by eateries, particularly on West Boulevard Road near Ibrahim Park.
"Trichy Corporation should identify trouble-free areas to relocate these eateries," said Pushpak Jain, a resident of Jaffershah Street. Pavements constructed under the Smart Cities Mission on West Boulevard Road are frequently encroached upon by gas stoves and makeshift stalls.
Though the local body has removed encroachments by mobile eateries twice in the past nine months in Cantonment and West Boulevard Road areas, enforcement has not been sustained.
Meanwhile, the two-year-old proposal to develop dedicated food streets remains unimplemented.
"Suitable roads or vacant spaces should be identified to support both entrepreneurs and customers," said Subash Chandran, member of Trichy Intra-City Development Endeavours (TIDES). Corporation officials cited a fund shortage as a key reason for the delay in developing food streets.
"Many educated youths operate mobile eateries to earn a livelihood. We have identified locations to develop food streets and will soon seek appropriate schemes to build the required infrastructure," Mayor Mu Anbalagan told TOI.
